Fox Business panel scoffs at proposal to expand voting rights to 16-year-olds in Washington, DC

From the April 19 edition of Fox Business Networks' Making Money with Charles Payne:

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CHARLES PAYNE (HOST): Washington, D.C., looking to lower the voting age for federal and local elections, potentially making way for 16-year-olds to vote. Proponents point to the student movement in the wake of the Parkland massacre. Yet, of course, these are the same folks that are pushing for gun ownership to be raised to 21 years of age. So it really doesn't seem consistent, at least not to me.

[...]

Hadley, not only are we hearing now from Washington, D.C., but there's some movement in New York state allowing felons to vote, and there's all kinds of actions like this happening across the country. I mean, I think it's pretty transparent what's going on, but what do you make of it?

HADLEY HEATH MANNING (INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM): Sure. States have the ability to set qualifications for who has the right to vote, but whether something is constitutional and legal and whether something is wise are two different questions. And I agree with you, Charles. We are very inconsistent in terms of the rights that we grant people through adolescence up to early adulthood. We say you need to stay on your parents' health insurance until you're 26, and yet Washington, D.C., would consider giving people the right to vote at 16. It's really unfair to young people who are mature and who have the ability to take responsibility for themselves and who deserve to have more freedom. But we do -- when I consider just the age group as a whole, I don't think 16-year-olds are ready for that level of responsibility. 

PAYNE: It is an interesting juxtaposition when you say you can't own a handgun until you are 21, but you can vote for the person that has their finger on the button, right? The nuclear button. But John, nevertheless, this is where we are in the world of politics. It's pretty obvious, but it might work for them.

JOHN BURNETT (GOP STRATEGIC ADVISOR): Well, exactly. When you look at the timing of it and the Democratic strategy, the only thing that they have going for them is the resist movement, which is really not going that well, right? So they have to look for new voter pools. So they're looking toward illegal immigrants, parolees, and now teenagers without even investing into education because when we look across America, civics education has been taken out of schools. So, we need to actually educate our youth to make sure they know how the republic works.

Previously:

Laura Ingraham’s attack on David Hogg is nothing new. Fox has been mocking students and children for years. 

Coulter proposes raising the voting age to 40

Fox Business guest criticizes Parkland students for acting “like they’re bulletproof”